Fujitsu Receives Order for Japan's Fastest Supercomputer System for AI Applications

Fujitsu has received an order from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) for AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI), which is set to become the fastest supercomputer system in Japan.

Included in the ABCI configuration will be Fujitsu's latest x86 servers, the Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY. The system will offer a theoretical peak performance in half-precision floating point operations (a critical measure in the AI field) of 550 petaflops, and 37 petaflops of double-precision floating point operation performance, a conventional measure in simulation and other fields.

If this system had competed in the latest TOP500 ranking of supercomputers that took place in June 2017, it would have taken the top position in Japan and third place globally.

ABCI will be deployed to the new ABCI datacenter on the Kashiwa II campus of the University of Tokyo, and is scheduled to begin operations in fiscal 2018 (fiscal years start April 1).

Applying its AI and HPC technology to AIST’s high system requirement standards for both hardware and software, Fujitsu will construct the system with the goal of commencing operations in fiscal 2018. After the launch, Fujitsu will support with the operation of ABCI, and with researchers both inside and outside AIST, through R&D and practical applications in society will contribute to the acceleration of AI utilization.

Fujitsu will also adapt the various techniques, insight, and experience gained from building and support in the operation of ABCI to Fujitsu Human Centric AI Zinrai, its approach to AI technology, as well as to its HPC technology, improving the company’s products, services and solutions while promoting its business.